"Jonah and i just watched a vw hard top convertible put its top up. I think jonah thought it was a transformer."

I called her later and she told me that my son (almost 2 years old at the time) saw the VW begin its mystical transformation and exclaimed, "Wow!" That is SO cool on SO many different levels!!!

I love that my son approaches life with a spirit of awe and wonder. I wish that I was more like him in that regard. I think that it sucks that as we grow older and more "mature" that we stifle the mystical awe and wonder of life by trying to explain away everything.

Creativity, passion, wonder, discovery, curiosity... my son fully engages life with this type of focus and energy.

In fact, he and I were recently in his bathroom when I noticed something on the wall. I looked over and saw that there was a moth on the wall of his bathtub. I pointed to it and asked him, "Jonah, do you know what that is?"

He responded, "Bu-guh!" (Emphasis on the "guh.")

No too long after that exchange, the moth flew up towards the light. With awe and amazement he exclaimed and pointed, "Dada, ah-perk bug-guh!" The word that he used to describe what he saw happening was "ah-perk" which is his version of the word "helicopter." (my wife and I are working with him on that). However, I loved seeing his creativity! He skillfully crafted an explanation of the world around him based on his creativity and imagination.

While he is 100% right that the bug was acting like a helicopter, I did not want to hinder his imaginative mind by correcting him. How tragic would it be for a child to hear that his ability to dream and imagine and create has boundaries? The biggest and best minds throughout human history have been people who discover and create and invent and see things that aren't possible; it is as if they dream them into reality.

I think too often we get to a point of knowing too much about the world around us that we start trivializing and devaluing the extraordinary in the every day moments of life. I think this is one of the reasons that Jesus tells us that we must approach God with faith like a child. How many times have we encountered God in our lives but lacked the correct eyes to see Him? What if we were to look for God with the passion of a child?

Have you ever been in a situation that just caused you to pause or gasp or marvel at the world around you? Maybe it was on a beach watching the sun dip ever so gently into the ocean with one last kiss of sunlight before saying good night to the day as pastels painted the sky with radiant glory. Maybe it was standing in the snow on a 70 degree day at 10,000 feet on a ridge overlooking peak after snow covered peak marveling at the majesty of the diamond covered mountains that seemed to pronounce their proud stature to the world below. Maybe it was lying quietly in the still of the night with nothing but a gentle breeze whispering in your ear and the light of millions of stars gazing down upon you with their light years of wisdom when a shooting star broke the serenity and took the breath from your chest.

There are countless more experiences to offer, but I do know that in those moments, in the stillness of our lives, God was and is reaching out to us by showing us His glory in the world around us so that we would be drawn to Him and seek Him with awe and wonder like a child.

Here is a recent post of mine from SoulRevolution.net:

Sanctus Real's latest CD (We Need Each Other) has a song on it called, Whatever You're Doing (Something Heavenly). The chorus goes like this:

Whatever You're doing inside of me, It feels like chaos somehow there's peace, It's hard to surrender to what I can't see, but I'm giving in to something Heavenly!

Wow does that nail it for me recently!!!

Yesterday, while I was on my way back to Austin from Amarillo, I stopped in Lubbock for some lunch. I sat in my car silently eating my Schlotzky's in a hotel parking lot when half way through my sandwich, something stirred deep within me. There was an overwhelming feeling of peace, joy & awe deep within my heart/soul. You might call it a sense of Holiness. It made my eyes well up with tears & the next thing I know I was praising God for everything good I could think of in my life. God overwhelmed me with His presence. That had to be the Holiest lunch meeting that I have ever had. Chaotic & crazy... but SO cool.

I just spent the past week with family and friends in Illinois and was reminded of some silliness that a good friend of mine and I had when we got together around Easter. I must warn you... this is silliness. Pure silliness.

Here is what happens when you have a creative, photographer wife and off-the-wall friends: